Nat Barnes reports back on our Alfa Romeo Junior electric long-termer.

List price (BiK): £35,695 (3%) | Range: 254 miles | Test range: 248 miles | Claimed efficiency: 4.1mpkWh |Test efficiency: 3.9mpkWh

Report 3:

As mentioned in my last report, this month saw my first proper road trip with the Alfa Junior. A few days in the Peak District meant a chance to get my hiking legs back into working order, but that also meant the possibility of an aching wallet as well as aching muscles.

The reason was simply down to the need to charge the Junior while up there. In reality, I was planning to spend much more time on two feet than four wheels, but I would certainly need a charge on arrival to get me around while up there and a full charge for my return journey.

However, trying to find an Airbnb location with EV charging onsite is about as easy as finding Editor Challen in the pub when it’s his round. But, despite the very small selection and a lot of searching, I finally managed it (the Airbnb that is, not the Editor buying a round, don’t be ridiculous). And therein lies the problem for EV drivers. It’s so much easier to charge at your location that it’s almost worth compromising on what you might ideally want from a property.

My eventual location in a small village between Bakewell and Buxton offered off-street parking and home charging at 30p/kWh. For a full 0-100% charge of the Junior’s 54kWh battery that would be the equivalent of £16.20, but the alternative was at an ultra-rapid CCS charger at 75p/kWh that could cost more than £40, so I was making a considerable saving. Also, I’m more than happy for the owner to make a profit from providing charging facilities if it means that I’m saving money too.

As it happened, I needn’t have worried. My host was very friendly and we got chatting about all things home charging and also on EVs as he was curious about the Junior. During the course of our conversation, he said he was on the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff, reducing that equivalent 100% charge to just £3.78. He further explained that, despite the wording on his Airbnb account, if his guests were happy to only charge overnight at that cheap rate then he didn’t bother actually charging anyone, which was obviously fine with me.

While the faster motorway driving and the need for air con during the recent high temperatures saw the Junior’s average drop, the more sedate speeds driving around the Peak District meant that was soon almost restored back to my normal average of 4mpkWh by the end of the few days, which also helped to reduce the amount of charge for the return journey.

The answer when running an EV therefore is to be as smart as possible when it comes to your charging, because not all electricity and not all opportunities to charge are equal. Or, to be more precise, charging costs are certainly not equal, especially when out on the road.

Report 2:

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One month down with the Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica and I’d like to expand on something that I touched on at the end of the previous report – rightsized EVs.

Coming from ICE vehicles, there’s a natural tendency with EVs to want the biggest battery and the longest range possible to cover all eventualities. That’s understandable with larger cars, but with smaller cars such as the Junior, efficiency is far more important.

This Junior might only have a 54kWh battery, shared with other models in the Stellantis range, but that’s enough for a 248-mile real-world range and, perhaps more importantly, efficiency levels that are regularly above 4mpkWh, especially on shorter journeys.

Now, admittedly we’re into the summer months, and warmer temperatures and air conditioning don’t deplete an EV’s range as much as the heater in winter, but anything above 4mpkWh is pretty good in my book. It would be easy to criticise the Junior and say this is only on shorter journeys, but in reality this is what the majority of us are doing for the majority of the time.

A really good upcoming example is the few days I plan to spend walking in the Peak District next month. That will see me cover at least 400 miles in five days, but that’s a rare trip. The rest of the time, I’m doing short hops on my commute to the station, for the school drop-off or pick-up, all usually less than 20 miles. And on those shorter, slower journeys, I can regularly not just hit that magic 4mpkWh figure, but improve on it; anything up to 4.5mpkWh.

Again, those critics might say that’s a great efficiency figure, but it’s only achievable on those shorter journeys. But the thing is, all of those shorter journeys add up to a long distance when they’re combined. The length of the journey is irrelevant, because it’s the overall that really matters. And, of course, in turn that also dilutes the lesser efficiency of those longer trips for your overall average.

It’s what makes the Alfa such a great little EV. It may not boast a 300-mile-plus range, but it doesn’t need to. The times when I need it to do that distance will be few and far between and then I can use the public charging network, which is improving all the time (despite what you might read in some areas of the media). For the other 95% of the time however, I’ll be revelling in the Junior’s great efficiency and the perfect-sized battery for the perfect-sized car. Not too big, not too small, it’s the EV answer to Goldilocks.

First report:

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So here’s a tough circle to square for Alfa Romeo. Just how, with a brand known for its passion, emotion and focus on driver enjoyment, do you match that to the efficiency and more practical needs of a modern EV? I’ll be looking to find that out over my next six months with the new Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica.

This Junior is the mid-range Speciale model with a 54kWh battery and 156hp, down on the flagship 240hp of the Veloce but also maximising its 254-mile claimed range. As a family car and with summer holidays and some upcoming hiking trips, I’ll be stretching that range to its maximum at times – especially so after having enjoyed the range of the outgoing Renault Scenic with its 87kWh battery.

That said, perhaps that won’t be the issue I first imagined judging from my first few days with the car. When I saw the claimed 4.1mpkWh official average efficiency, I must admit that I inwardly scoffed as to whether that could be matched in the real world. However, even with some long motorway journeys, I’ve already been recording 4.0mpkWh without any effort whatsoever. If first impressions count, then the Alfa is doing itself no harm at all.

The same goes for its looks too. I have yet to see another Junior on the roads, but the Brera Red of our test car combined with the black roof (a £1,200 optional extra) is really striking – even my neighbour who isn’t remotely interested in cars, remarked on its looks and styling. The other option, the £1,350 Technology pack, adds LED matrix headlights, an electric tailgate (nice to have, but probably a bit OTT on such a small car), wireless charging and front, rear and side parking sensors.

In fact, the only downside of the Junior’s styling is, ironically, one of my favourite elements. The dominant front grille with its Alfa serpent cut out is a lovely detail, but being all matt black perhaps doesn’t stand out in real life (or pictures) as much as you might imagine. For me that’s a shame as it matches the rest of the eye-catching exterior – but then if it were gloss black maybe it would stand out too much?

The Junior’s size is also winning me over. I loved my previous Scenic, but even though it wasn’t a huge SUV, it still sometimes felt big when slotting into some tighter car parking spaces. That’s not a problem with the Alfa though, its smaller dimensions meaning that it can easily slot into the most awkward of spaces. Along with that smaller battery and range but great efficiency, it’s also a great example of ‘rightsized EVs’ for car manufacturers going forward.

I’ve always been a firm believer in smaller and more efficient EVs having a crucial part to play in the e-mobility transition, so the next six months spent with the Junior will be a good test of that.